BassBonesTX

Don't worry about scores. The individual judges do their best to rank and can't see everything (that is why they run around the field a lot). The ensemble judges do their best to rank as well but you are getting two different perspectives. I believe they are in the box with GE judges and those judges are more likely to watch the group they are more familiar with (guard director watches guard, band director watches winds, etc). Unfortunately this system doesn't always get the system right but I still find it a little bit more accurate than UIL. I thought the scores were a little weird at first but then I remembered that the judges are all human.

My high school does suicides to a drum cadence. I thought about trying to teach them to do it while playing Low Rider but then I realized that probably wouldn't go over so well.

I think a band needs a ballad or something to that extent. Something to get away from in your face playing. It doesn't have to be slow necessarily (I've marched shows that march about 150 in "slow" movements).

I like it when drill writers forget trombone players have slides and it is up to us to figure out how to make it work. Or when a trombone is traveling left and a tuba is traveling right and they are separated by about 2 8-5 steps.

The best advice I can offer is to not worry about the crowd until after the performance. If you stay focused in your show and have a great performance the crowd reaction should be great. As for football crowds don't worry about them (although I must admit spitting and obscenities are very unnecessary and can be very distracting). I have always been told to ignore them and treat it as a chance to get people interested. If you can take people who came to watch a football game and get them interested, then you have done a great job. Get them to applaud like crazy and you gain a lot of respect from them.